1. Mumbai Attacks A Business Response to Terror

2. Introduction

Joanne Mullen

• Director of Product Implementation & Documents

About Group Voyagers

• With more than 80 years in travel, Group Voyagers, Inc. is the company that markets and sells the Globus family of brands Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways which have given millions of travelers memorable vacation moments and experiences while handling all of the details, allowing them to relax and enjoy more more sights, more insight and more fun.

3. Incident Response Team

Team assembled in event of incidents

Sample incidents

• Terrorism

• Floods

• Hurricanes

• Earthquakes

• Volcanic Ash

• Travel Warnings

• Coach accident with injuries

• Ship/motor coach accidents

4. Preparation

Our incident team has a series of steps it takes in any incident to verify information, establish communications, determine policies and regulate an incident.

• We have our Incident Response manual to guide us

• We have our well tenured staff to provide the experience

• We have the leaders to make decisions

What we have learned over the years

• MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS

• EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

5. Mission Statement

It is our intent to care first and foremost for clients and their families when an incident occurs.We aim to provide that care swiftly to minimize distress and disappointment.This frame of reference should prevail when decisions are made in the initial hours and days after an incident is recognized.All other business and financial considerations related to the incident will be regarded as secondary, and dealt with once the immediate needs are responded to.

All parts of Globus family of brands are expected to adopt this standard when involved in resolving an incident.

6. Mumbai Attacks 7. Littleton (me) TorontoAustralia - Operations Ground Handler India Office Background Information Lugano 8. Notification 9. Situation Assessment

Do we have any tours in the area?Any immediate danger to travelers?

10.

Record time (12 minute response)

• Ask operations to check in with passengers.Operations incident response team would handle on-site the passenger care and concern.

• Thanksgiving was back on!

WRONG!!!

NO ASSUMPTIONS 11. How Close?

3 Minutes later phone call from call center staff

Trident connected by lobby to OBEROI!

Initiate full incident response meet in War Room

TridentOberoiMrs. Jones 12. War Room 13. War Room what was missing

Had all the jacks set up for extra computers, but all the computers were in the technology department.Everyone in technology had left for the weekend

1 phone line not enough needed one for inbound calls, outbound calls and one for back up if either was in use.Instead we had to rely on personal phones to manage calls

• Causes distractions when using a conference phone

No printer

No pencil sharpener

Check that space is usable clear of objects 14. Communication Guide states this: Incident had this: 15. First Learning

Most travelers do not register with US Embassies while traveling abroad

Most of our travelers do not carry international mobile phones

We do not require the collection of emergency contact information prior to departure.

16. Helpless

Communicate with travel agents with passengers

Prepare for media inquires.Prepare for passenger / agent inquiries

17. Possible Scenarios

Not being able to reach our passengers, we determined the following were possible scenarios for them:

• They escaped when the fire broke out in the hotel (there was one blast in the lobby)

• They were hiding in their rooms or elsewhere in the hotel

• They could be hostages

(or so we thought) 18. Resilient or crazy?

Mrs. Jones

Expect the unexpected 19. Still no news

Only information was from newscasts.Most on Taj hotel

• Ground handlers also seems at a stand-still because local authorities were not allowing them near the hotels or providing information

We needed to think about upcoming departures too

• Closed for holiday weekend and next departure in 12 days.

• Needed action plan for handling inquiries

• Insurance coverage for cancellations due to the event

What about other tour operators in the area.Could they help?Did they need help?

• Protect the industry

What about our India office?

20. Mrs. Jones our lifeline

Her concerns were not expected

• Not as concerned with terrorist

• Friends

• Plans

• How to make those plans

• Mrs. Jones was not using cell but hotel phone

MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS 21. Going Home 22. Hostages(and Mrs. Jones)

Update at 8:00 pm that there were 5 hostages being held on the 19 thfloor.

• Our passengers were on the 20 th , 27 th , and 33 rd

Mrs. Jones calling again

• Provided emergency phone numbers to her for Littleton and Australia office

• • Error should have provided ground handler phone numbers

23. Good news

Good news was finally received at 10:00pm from Canada office

No news from staff & No news from police Worst part = looking for instructions and getting none. 24. And so on Then the rescue storming by the troops 25. Rescue Mission 26. 27. Return Home

We took care of all flights

• Mrs. Jones continued to Dubai

Met passengers at airport upon return home

• Provided with senior management phone numbers

• Offered counseling services

Followed up a few days later to see how they were adjusting

• Further counseling offered

• We also verified and picked up all expenses paid by the client during the incident

Final closure announcement sent to all personnel along with instructions for proper protocol for media inquires

A thank you follow up to everyone involved

28. Debriefing

General Observations

• What worked well?

• • Thorough communication.As soon as information was received from one source, it was passed quickly.Passengers, ground handlers and offices were pleased with the prompt replies

• • One point person for communications from each office

• • Excellent ground handler they were prepared with own Incident Response preparations

• • Team remained focused on best interest of passengers.Mission statement followed

• • Roles and responsibilities managed well we had the right team

• • A variety of communication points for ground handler in initial minutes

• • • They were able to reach us when operations was not available.That 30 minutes was critical

29. Debriefing continued

General Observations

• What did not work well?

• • Initial communications we didnt go through operations and started communications directly with ground handler.Hard to stop that mid-stream.

• • Canada office started communicating with operations directly.Created double work.They needed to work through us

• • No contacts for clients

• • Signage for potential passengers outside of hotel was not available until many hours into the process. IF we had passengers outside the hotel, we would have struggled to find them.

• • Emergency phone numbers need to be available 24 hours.Emergency numbers were not answered

• • Not all incident response members had phones in which to check email away from the office

• • During an incident is not time to question if further training is needed for team

30. Debriefing continued

Tools

• What worked well?

• • Smart phones rapid access to information

• • Reporting being able to pull reservation data instantly to get snap shot of who is where on tour.

• What did not work well?

• • War room was not set up or updated correctly

• • Reporting tool was available but pre-canned reports are not created (time loss to pull information)

• • Phone management inbound and outbound lines were not available

• • Dont chain chairs to desks!(Watch cords and space set up)

• • Use the tools we had a room of whiteboard but found ourselves all huddled around one piece of paper

• • If you use smart phones, can the team be disciplined enough to turn them off?

31. Debriefing continued

Logistics

• What did not work well?

• • No prior planning for how to travel to a destination quickly i.e. how to secure visas

• • Client information is managed by the Travel Agent.We need to collect and store it better

Team Comfort

• What worked well?

• • Team really watched our for each other, always asking on a personal level if they were ok.Staff welfare also repeatedly checked in to ask

• What did not work well?

• • Recommend members of the same household not be on the same incident response team

32. Debriefing continued

Communications

• What did not work well?

• • Email was excellent for logging and tracking information

• • Media statements developed and stored with appropriate access

• • Counseling firm was prepared and ready when we needed them

• What did not work well?

• • When using email to communicate, change the subject line for each new communication string.

• • Teach and reconfirm when and how to reply to all

• • Smart phones cannot access documents via links to internal systems

33. Final Considerations

How would the situation have been different if we had 40 people instead of 5 impacted

• We would have opened our 1-800 crisis line which we can gate to certain work areas

• We would have struggled with out-of-town schedules, leaving us with less trained staff

• • Need more training

• We would have established shifts for the incident (not everyone working the 48 hours all the way through)

• Need to establish better communication plan with family members: establish one family member in which to communicate

• We would need more frequent holding statements and media updates

• We recognized two different levels which would change the situation

• • Passengers in harms way

• • Passengers not in harms way

34. Conclusion

Situation was one we considered, but only high level.Need to be prepared for anything to happen

We had a fortunate outcome.

Care and concern first and foremost

• Dont get caught up in power roles or finances

• Be prepared with information that is accurate and timely

No incident will fit neatly into your guides and manuals

Common sense is golden

Dont make assumptions ask the questions (even those in your head ask out loud)

Expect the unexpected